AN EPIC 20-kilometre traffic jam choked Melbourne's busiest arterial road on Thursday, as planned maintenance works on the West Gate Bridge slowed traffic to a crawl all the way from West Sunshine to Malvern.

The bridge was reduced from five lanes to two in each direction all morning and for part of the afternoon, backing up city-bound traffic on the West Gate Freeway as far back as the Western Ring Road. At its heaviest, west-bound traffic travelling on CityLink from the eastern suburbs was backed up through the Domain Tunnel and as far east as Toorak Road.

Many motorists were caught out by the closure, despite a VicRoads information campaign, with some reporting delays that pushed their morning commute out to a teeth-grinding two hours or more.

Planned maintenance works on the West Gate Bridge caused a 20-kilometre traffic jam on Thursday. Photo: Ken Irwin

Those traffic delays stand to be repeated today and potentially every working day until January 11 as VicRoads completes asphalt resurfacing work it says is essential to keep the road in good condition.

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According to VicRoads, about 180,000 vehicles cross the bridge on an ordinary working day outside of holiday times. Numbers drop to about 150,000 in the Christmas holiday period, making it the quietest time of the year on Melbourne's roads.

VicRoads advises commuters to allow extra travel time or find another way to get across the city between now and January 11.

The bridge was reduced from five lanes to two in each direction all morning and for part of the afternoon. Photo: Ken Irwin

But those who chose to take a train into the city yesterday were not spared their own serving of transport chaos, as Regional Rail Link track works meant trains did not run via the City Loop on most lines, or between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations.

The situation was compounded by the publication of incorrect timetable information by Public Transport Victoria on its website, smartphone app and at its call centre.

A Public Transport Victoria spokeswoman said it had received an "unprecedented number of timetable changes" from all public transport operators.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

"These include extra services for special events, summer timetables and changes to make way for Regional Rail Link construction works," she said.

"Some of these changes are still coming in and PTV is working full time to get the changes into the system and published as quickly as we can."

Trains were running to a Saturday timetable, with a number of extra peak-hour services. Errors included listing services that stopped at all stations as express services.

The Regional Rail Link works, which are also scheduled to extend into the new year, forced the diversion of all but six metro lines away from the City Loop. However, services on four of those lines were temporarily suspended in the afternoon, because of a track fault near North Melbourne station, causing major delays on the cusp of the evening peak.

On the roads, city worker Janine Doney said it took her two hours and 45 minutes to get from her Point Cook home to her desk at her Exhibition Street office. Her frustration turned to anger at the lack of maintenance workers on the three closed city-bound lanes as she crossed the bridge.

''As I travelled over the bridge this morning, there was no infrastructure or manpower in place to conduct any work inbound, this was all set up on the out-bound side,'' Ms Doney said.

''It is time that VicRoads are held accountable for the chaos they continuously create on the roads each and every day, as any other private organisation would be.''

But VicRoads road operations director, Dean Zabrieszach, said the authority had carefully planned the timing of its works to minimise the impact on motorists and freight operators.

''It's been happening on the West Gate for 20 to 30 years, it's something that has to be done regularly, otherwise the bridge surface will start becoming rougher, and I hesitate to say dangerous, but not the way a bridge of that type should be functioning,'' he said.

Brian Negus, the RACV's head of public policy, said there was ''no ideal time'' to close lanes on the West Gate Bridge but he said that the Christmas period was probably the least-worst time.

He said the huge traffic snarls had again exposed Melbourne's unhealthy reliance on the West Gate Bridge for east-west trips across the city.

''Maintenance works are essential but it does point to the fact that Melbourne is totally reliant on one river crossing east to west,'' Mr Negus said.

The Baillieu government this month declared the proposed east-west tunnel a major project to accelerate early planning for the 18-kilometre arterial, which would extend from the Western Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway via CityLink and provide a second major river crossing.

However, the government has stated its intention to build the eastern section first, which would not include the second river crossing. The opposition says the western section must be built first.

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143 comments

I don't know why Melburnians continue to use or even 'think' the West Gate is the only option to get in/out of the city.

There's Dynon Road, there's Footscray Road, there's Ballarat Road.

All three roads have smaller arterials leading to the south-western suburbs.

I've lived out here on the Sydenham line for almost five years and have only used the West Gate about 30 - 40 times. It's just a time consuming way to travel.

Commenter

The Marching Jester

Location

The Age Mailroom

Date and time

December 27, 2012, 11:12PM

Sssshhhhh! Don't tell everyone. I live in West Footscray, mainly use Footscray Rd to cross the city, occasionally use Dynon Rd, I never use the Westgate.

Commenter

RobJ

Location

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 5:04AM

And if you live in the south exactly what are these hidden options of which you speak? Punt Road up to Victoria St? Through the city centre itself? Do we go out further east to join, say, Victoria St further out? All are a complete nightmare during peak hour and all take longer than simply using the Westgate (when there aren't roadworks).

Commenter

Braaaains?

Location

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 6:51AM

State governments have been building more and more roads which leads to more and more people driving. This results in the West Gate Bridge needing more and more resurfacing maintenance.

They made public transport promises before the last election and now have backed down on all of them.

The promises have all been tied up in red tape and "feasibility studies" which are designed to get them beyond the next election and then shelved as "too costly" or "not viable".This is just so typical of this State government.

However the $13 billion east-west toll road which was not on the election agenda has now jumped the queue and suddenly become of "great significance" after failing cost-benefit analysis. If this road were to be built motorists will be slugged about $1million per day in toll fees.

There needs to be a judicial inquiry into the relationship and secret deals between politicians, road lobbyists, political donors and the road freight industry .

Commenter

Rail Now

Location

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 7:37AM

well of course you would use that route, but living in Werribee going that way is not practical and takes twice as long, particularly if you need to get East.. There have been works on the Westgate freeway and the Western ring road for years....it's never finished! and when one piece is finally complete years after it's begun, another section is reduced down to 1 lane and work commences on that for the next few years! Adding to the problem , is the explosion of housing in the West; not only to these estates have their own transport issues, but the road system clogs up further on the main arterials because of the never ending roadworks. My partner and I are convinced that the road companies do shoddy work so that they have to repeatedly fix the roads thus keeping themselves in business and sucking up government money in the process.....but maybe that's just a conspiracy

Commenter

stayathomemumma

Location

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 8:11AM

Not that practical for those of us from the southwest (ie, the main western growth corridor) as it means getting off the freeway, and the traffic through Footscray can be hellish too. But improving both of these options would provide at least some relief for travellers on the Westgate....I usually use the trains as the Westgate builds up so early these days

Commenter

Banana

Location

Melb

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 8:14AM

They stuffed up Footscray road when they developed Docklands and Etihad Stadium. The way they changed things to force traffic to use the tunnel has also ruined many alternate routes both sides of the Yarra. Old Dandenong road is unbelievable as you take off from traffic lights the next one ahead turns red, it is impossible to travel its length without stopping at most sets of lights. It cannot be that hard to coordinate traffic lights so the traffic flows to save fuel, lower polution and save time. When they build another east-west link it will be a tollway and everyone will stillwant to use westgate anyhow.

Commenter

JHP

Location

Colac

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 8:47AM

Poor car-addicted Melbourne, with her congested roads and underfunded public transport. What is Ted's fix? Build more roads!

Yep, that'll totally work, encouraging more cars into the system. Great work Ted.

Commenter

kosh

Location

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 12:05AM

And to add ... How about West gate road works in sync with Werribee train line upgrade...They forgot to add Palmers Road bridge works to the list !!!

Commenter

NR

Location

Melb

Date and time

December 28, 2012, 4:45AM

i'd love to see the tradesmen/the delivery drivers/the sales people/ the transport operators pedal around haphazardly all day with scant regard for red lights or indicating on their bicycles